Top 6 Bitcoin Scam You Should Know

While cyber theft ravages the internet space, Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space are not exempted. Cryptocurrency scam is a fraudulent means of stealing by promising big payouts that will double your money in a short period or using other techniques to trick you in handing over your crypto to scammers. Since Bitcoin is decentralised, it becomes easy for scammers or hackers to falsify transactions.

However, you can avoid most of the Bitcoin scam. How to prevent Bitcoin scam are mainly in two broadways; avoid greed and know the possible tricks that hackers or cybercriminals use to exploit victims. Therefore, this article is to share the various Bitcoin scams you must avoid if you don't want to lose your Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies. 

Types of Bitcoin Scams

In the video below, we explained one of the bitcoin scams mention in this article and how to avoid it. The video featured a character called Elon that loses 20 Bitcoin.  With the help of this video and this article, you can learn how to avoid these scams.

Below are some Bitcoin scams for your pleasure;

Bitcoin Giveaway. 

There is a phrase that says "there's no free thing anywhere". However, as factual as the assertion, maybe, people are still expecting Bitcoin for no good reasons. Hence, scammers take the privilege to steal Bitcoin. Therefore, Bitcoin giveaway is a fraudulent promise of Bitcoin possibly in exchange for some activities that could compromise users security and accounts. 

For instance, a famous example of Bitcoin giveaway scam is the trending Twitter 

hack. In the hack, scammers, who hacked prominent individuals and corporate accounts, announced some giveaway. By so doing, several people lost their Bitcoin.  Also, in the video, you’d see Elon lose 10BTC as Twitter giveaway.

One way to prevent these scams is by saying no to greed and verifying every promise. 

Phishing Scam

If you have responded to some emails soliciting some actions, say resetting password, and you did it, then you have been the victim of a phishing scam. Concurrently, you can be a scam victim if you ever reset your password or do any of the actions required by a phishing email or website. 

Meanwhile, it is not only through emails as phishing comes in as a website asking you to input some details for some rewards. 

However, you can avoid phishing scams by verifying the emails you receive as well as the websites you put your details. 

Mining scam

Unlike fiat and other digital assets, cryptocurrencies are either mined or staked. Therefore, mining is to Cryptocurrencies what money printing is to Fiat and paper money. Although there are good mining programs that mints, secure and verify bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions, there are fake mining practices too. 

Consequently, those illegal or fraudulent mining operations result in Bitcoin scams. 

Therefore, you can be a victim of a Bitcoin scam if you accept to join or link your account to an illegal or fake mining program. What the miner requires is to ask you for some tokens to join their mining pools or sometimes ask you to participate at no cost. At the process of joining, they would have access to your Bitcoin wallet. 

In either way, you may lose the Bitcoin you paid as initial payment or get your Bitcoin account exploited.  If you must avoid a mining scam, do due diligence before joining some mining pools or better avoid mining programs. 

Blackmails

During email marketing practice, people get access to random emails and possibly other details. Therefore, bitcoin scammers often use the emails or details obtained through that medium to send out Blackmailing email to people. In this case, the scammer threatens you to send some Bitcoin or got some of your details repealed or blackmailed. Meanwhile, the scammer may not have other information as assumed. So when you get such an email threatening you that your videos are tracked using a remote desktop protocol, in exchange for a Bitcoin, remember that it is a type of Bitcoin scam. However, you can ignore it and report the wallet address as Bitcoin abuse. 

Pyramid Schemes and Ponzi scheme

A pyramid scheme is a multi-level marketing technique where people refer or recruit for their projects. However, there are genuine programs, but it is left for you to do due diligence to find out. Through pyramid schemes, Bitcoin scammers provide some enticing offers or return of investment if you put some token while recruiting as many as you can. While this is rampant, there could be no singular way of knowing genuine ones; you have to avoid some unnecessary risk, greed and ensure Do-Your-Own-Research before joining anyone. 

An example of Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency pyramid scheme is Bitconnect. Within one year, they were able to fraudulently worth $2.6 billion.

Similarly, a Ponzi scheme assures you of specific and alarming return on investment within a short period. Meanwhile, recall that investment is not always predicted as they are subject to some factors. Therefore, if you found a website or platform that offers you such incentives for investing in Bitcoin, don't expect a reminder to figure out that it is a Bitcoin scam. 

One Coin, Plus Token are popular examples of  Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes. Chainalysis tracked a total of about 180,000, 6,400,000, 111,000, and 53, bitcoin, ethereum, tether and omisego, respectively.

Malware

Scammers are devising ways to defraud victims on a daily basis, so you have to be careful while sending out or receiving Bitcoin. Sometimes, a scammer may trick you with a fake wallet to divert a transaction to another wallet. For instance, some malware programs which are secretly installed on the victim's computer, phones and other gadgets often change your address once you paste the address. 

Consequently, once the program successfully changes your Bitcoin address, you have little chances of getting it back. However, you can avoid such Bitcoin scam by checking your Bitcoin wallet address very well before sending out. Sometimes, you're advised to check the address about three times to ensure the address wasn't compromised. 

Conclusion

A Bitcoin scammer steals your Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies only when you don't know what a Bitcoin scam is and when you're careless like Elon or want free Bitcoins. The best ways to avoid bitcoin scams is through sound crypto education by joining our platform Mycryptoview which our community members can help you answer your questions and, you can read other users reviews. Also, you can earn MCV tokens when you ask a question, answer a question, or write a review about your favourite crypto.